Building Bridges: Your Community and Labor Report
National Edition
Produced by Ken Nash and Mimi Rosenberg
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Indigenous Lumad Leaders from Mindanao, in Their Fight for Food,
Land, and Justice Take Aim at US Funding Philipino Militarization
with
Norma Capuyan
Chairperson of Apo Sandawa Lumadnong Panaghiusa sa Cotabato (ASLPC),
a provincial organization of indigenous peoples in Cotabato. Chairperson of
BAI Mindanao indigenous womenâs network, a provincial organization of
indigenous peoples in Cotabato. Norma participated in the recent protest by
over 5,000 peasant and Lumad farmers who demanded the release of calamity
funds and relief goods from the government. The protest escalated into a deadly
dispersal by SWAT forces that killed three farmers and wounded another 117.
Norma is on the frontline of the Hulaw (Drought) campaign advocating for relief
and rehabilitation of peasants and Lumad communities that were severely
affected by the El Niño drought and state repression. Norma also serves as the
Vice Chairperson of the Kalumaran or Kusog sa Katawhang Lumad sa Mindanao
(Strength of the Indigenous Peoples in Mindanao), a Mindanao-wide alliance of
indigenous peoplesâ organizations with the main thrust of promoting the human
rights and collective rights of indigenous peoples and defending their ancestral
domain from big business interests.
and
Josephine Pagalan
Spokesperson, KASALO (Unity of Indigenous Peoplesâ Organizations in
Caraga). Josephine became the spokesperson of the regional indigenous
peoplesâ alliance KASALO after the arrest of its previous spokesperson
Genasque Enriquez in 2013. Josephine was witness to the killings of Manobo
leaders Dionel Campos and Datu Juvello Sinzo that sparked public outrage
and a Senate investigation into the increasing human rights violations against
indigenous peoples. Campos and Sinzo were killed along with Emerito
Samarca, Executive Director of Alternative Learning Center for Agriculture
and Livelihood Development (ALCADEV) Inc. by a government-backed
paramilitary group, in the presence of troops from the 75th Infantry Battalion
of the Philippine Army in the village of Han-ayan, Lianga, Surigao del Sur.
Josephine is an executive committee member of the local indigenous
community organization MAPASU (Persevering the Struggle for the Next
Generation). MAPASU has firmly stood against the encroachment of mining
companies in their ancestral lands which sits on coveted coal deposits in the
Andap Valley Complex (encompassing 5 municipalities of Surigao del Sur).
MAPASU was instrumental in establishing the ALCADEV schoolâan
alternative high school for indigenous youth in the province. Since the killings
of Campos, Samarca, and Sinzo, the 22 MAPASU communities have been
living in evacuation centers in Tandag City, Surigao del Sur.
and
Kerlan Fanagel
Chairperson, PASAKA Confederation of Lumad Organizations in Southern
Mindanao Region. Before he was elected as chairperson, Kerlan served as
Secretary General of PASAKA Confederation of Lumad Organizations in
Southern Mindanao from 2007 to 2015, growing the organization to its present
roster of 338 member organizations in 8 provinces. PASAKA is the largest
sub-regional alliance of indigenous peoples organizations in Mindanao. As
Secretary General, he played a key role in the coordination and management
of more than 700 Talaingod-Manobos that sought refuge at a United Church of
Christ (UCCP) in Davao City after their communities were heavily militarized in
March 2014. They were subject to âclearing operationsâ by the Armed Forces
of the Philippines tasked to make way for gold mining operations in the area.
These same communities were displaced again in 2015 along with other
Manobo communities from Davao del Norte and Bukidnon provinces due to
heavy military presence in their communities and forced recruitment into state-
sponsored paramilitary groups. Kerlan is also a cultural worker-- writing songs
and directing stage productions that tell the story of inter-tribal unity in defense
of the ancestral domain from militarization and economic plunder.

On April 1, 2016, the Philippine National Police opened fire on an estimated
6,000 peasant and indigenous farmers who had barricaded a national highway
in the southern Philippines. Three were killed, more than 100 wounded, and at
least 70 detained. The farmers were demanding the distribution of food relief
after more than 7-months of drought had caused widespread famine. Since
2010, at least 70 indigenous people from the southern island of Mindanao
(collectively known as Lumad) have been killed for their outspoken stand to
defend their ancestral domains from economic and ecological plunder. The
Philippines has the worldâs second largest gold deposits, more than half of
which are in Mindanao. Even indigenous community schools have come under
attack through military occupation and vilification. Currently, there are nearly
3,000 indigenous individuals who have been displaced from their communities
due to military occupation in an effort to clear the land for mining operations.
Indigenous people of the Philippines are increasingly being vilified, harassed,
and murdered for defending their ancestral land from foreign corporate
interests.

With the recent Philippine Presidential win of Davao City Mayor
Rodrigo Duterte, Lumad leaders and ICHRP are calling on the president,
who is from Southern Mindanao, to take action to stop the extra-judicial killings
of Lumads, environmental, and anti-mining advocates in the region. Recently,
indigenous Lumad leaders came to rally outside the Armed Forces Recruiting
Station in Times Square to protest the continued U.S. militarization in the
Philippines, especially in the southern island of Mindanao. The Lumad
protesters highlighted and condemned the role that the United States has
played in intensifying militarization, state repression, and human rights violations
against the indigenous communities of Mindanao. Made up of 18 ethnolinguist
tribes, âLumadâ is the umbrella term for indigenous peoples in Mindanao who
have suffered the brunt of military. Lumad leaders from all across Mindanao
demand accountability and challenge the president and Mindanao-native
Rodrigo Duterte to end the impunity of Armed Forces of the Philippines AFP
and its paramilitary troops. The Lumad protested to make clear that the harsh
conditions back home are not isolated incidents, but are actually facilitated by
U.S. military and economic policies funded by U.S. taxpayers. The United States
has played a big role in undermining the self-determination and economic power
of the Philippines, imposing ever-worsening hardship and poverty on societyâs
most marginalized sectors--particularly peasants and indigenous peoples. To
ensure its hegemony and influence in developing countries like the Philippines,
the U.S. works closely with national security forces like the AFP to safeguard
trade routes and access to markets. In the past year, the United States
increased its military aid to the Philippines from $50 million to $79 million, By
funding the AFP, the U.S. is strengthening counterinsurgency initiatives like
Oplan Bayanihan and enabling the continuation of human rights violations
against Lumad community leaders and activists.
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